Large-scale rotating systems with blades connected to a main shaft have been used for a long time for, for example a field of technology with large-scale rotating systems is the field of horizontal axis wind turbines. It is known to control the pitch (longitudinal rotational state) of the blades during operation in order to optimize the efficiency of operation of the rotating system. In rotating systems such as wind turbines, the main bearing, which connects the main shaft with a fixed structure—the nacelle in a wind turbine and—is subjected to substantial and varying forces during operation, for example due to wind and current conditions, etc.
In order to improve the up-time of, for example, a wind turbine, various parameters may be monitored, such as, for example, vibrations, lubricant pressure, etc. and transmitted to a remote location for review of service personnel.
For example, EP2290233 describes a system for management of wind turbines, specifically relating to determining and analyzing operational characteristics related to the operation of the wind turbine and determining whether a fault of the wind turbine is resettable.
Although the monitoring that is currently described in the art helps the scheduling of maintenance etc. and thereby may improve the availability of wind turbines and other similar rotating systems, failure modes that are not detected in time may exist.
Accordingly, there is desired to provide improvements to the above system for management of wind turbines and other rotating systems in order to enable more efficient, durable, and fail-safe monitoring and fault prediction. Thereby, for example the up-time of a wind turbine may be increased.